God's Bloody Acre (1975)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Harry Kerwin

Writers:

Wayne Crawford (story)
Harry Kerwin (screenplay)

Release Date:

July 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

It's a land of paradise. Unless you don't belong there.

Plot:

Three mountain-men brothers living in an uninhabited forest area love their simple lifestyle. When a...

Plot Keywords:

Forest | Construction | Murder | Female Nudity | Violence

Cast

Wayne Crawford	...	David (as Scott Lawrence)
Jennifer Stock	...	Leslie (as Jennifer Gregory)
Sam Moree	...	Benny
Daniel Schweitzer	...	Ezra
William Kerwin	...	Monroe (as Thomas Wood)
Kayelynne	...	Carol Rizzo
Robert Rosano	...	Robert Rizzo
Adrian Sherman	...	Fruit Vendor
Nancy Lawson	...	David's Girlfriend
Michael Shaw	...	Leslie's Boyfriend
Jerry James	...	Foreman
Raymond Diaz	...	Bulldozer Operator
Jack Nuber	...	Construction Crewman
Lane Chiles	...	Construction Crewman
Bruce Kronenberg	...	Construction Crewman

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Florida, USA

Saddle up the mule, ma. Slide me some grits, I's got to get me some education, uh hu hu hu.

Rednecks, hillbillies, hicks, local yokels, … whatever you call them, the intellectually underdeveloped people from the (Southern) U.S. backwoods form the greatest assembly of stereotypes the horror genre has to offer! Also, movies featuring maniacal rednecks truly reflect the spirit and heyday of 70's exploitation cinema, as these types of films simply cannot be made anymore nowadays. They're filthy, always discriminating to someone, rough, women-unfriendly and shameless. If someone made something like this today, groups of protesters would march outside the theaters until the owners have no other choice but to cancel the showings. The wondrously unscrupulous 70's decade has various "Rednecksploitation" highlights to offer, including acclaimed classics ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Deliverance") and fantastic hidden gems ("Poor Pretty Eddie", "The Love Butcher"). I secretly hoped to have stumbled on yet another hidden redneck-gem when I got my dirty little hands on "God's Bloody Acre", but apparently there are a handful of good reasons to justify this film's obscurity status. "God's Bloody Acre" is a tedious and uneventful film, and unless you dispose of a really high level of tolerance regarding bad acting, endless padding and a lack of coherence, you should avoid seeking out this film like you would avoid walking in front of a moving bus. The grounds for failure involve a combination of uninspired plotting and severe budgetary restraints. Director Harry Kerwin, as well as his entire cast and crew, obviously displays a lot of goodwill but he had very little to process into results. The basic plot outline shows potential, but the rest of the screenplay was seemingly improvised on the spot. The peaceful lives of three hillbilly brothers, homing in their self-made tepee in the middle of the woods, get brutally interrupted when construction workers arrive with their heavy machinery and begin to deforest the area in favor of building a camping ground. Reluctant to leave the area, they plan to scare the workmen away, but the youngest and over-enthusiast brother Billy accidentally kills one of them. Convinced there's no way back now, the threesome continue to terrorize everyone who sets foot on their turf, including two couples camping in the woods. "God's Bloody Acre" easily could have been a uniquely gritty and violent piece of redneck-horror, but alas, it turned out as 85 minutes of sheer boredom with only a couple of pleasurable moments. For some reason the script insists on drawing the pointless backgrounds of the camping couples. We witness the middle-aged couple struggling through a boring marriage crisis and needless flashbacks illustrate the reasons why the other two decided to leave everything behind. Yawn. The sequences revolving on the three rednecks and their primitive life-styles are the only worth mentioning. The oldest brother Monroe is the leader and Ezra desperately craves female attention. The coolest one, however, is young Billy. His hair looks like an exploded poodle and he tries to nurse cut down trees with bandages. The massacres are as good as bloodless, the undertones are quite racist, the plot-twists are absurd and senseless and there's only a slight bit of nudity on display. Heck, even the hillbilly-soundtrack is disappointing. You'll quickly find yourself making up your plot and repeating lines from other, more successful backwoods horror films.